It appears I missed a good time in Chicago last week.
In addition to the major speakers, there was an interesting announcement made:
A major sensation was caused at the convention by the announcement by award-winning filmmaker Sam Burbank that he would be making a theatrical motion picture based on Robert Zubrin’s novel “First Landing.” Listing the various Hollywood horror pictures or shoot-em- ups nominally featuring Mars, Burbank drew a sharp distinction between those efforts and the kind of movie “First Landing” will be.
What…it will actually be good?
There never has been a movie actually about the human exploration of Mars. This will be the first.” Burbank said, adding: “It will not be set in the glorious science fiction future, but in our own time, and it will show the mission done with all the grungy realism of the kind of space travel we can really do. It’s not going to show the Mars mission as being easy. It’s not going to show it as being impossible. It’s going to show it as being really tough, but doable, by a group of people who have what it takes to do it.”
Read: a sales pitch for Mars Direct.
If the heavy applause Burbank received wasn’t sufficient indication of the audience’s appreciation of his project, what happened next certainly was, as following his remarks, paperback copies of “First Landing” were bought up literally by the dozens by conference members mobbing the book table.
Now, even by the standards of a Mars Society press release, that’s laying it on a bit thick.
Bob’s novel was actually pretty well written and would make a good film. I would not, however, hold my breath. Remember James Cameron made a similer announcement some years ago. There’s alot that needs to be done to get a film project out of development hell before it even goes before the cameras.
I was thinking much the same thing — Sam Burbank may make good documentaries, but I would be surprised to see a major studio trust someone with his small-film background with a feature SF movie, given the larger budgets they tend to have.
Of course, that’s thinking in terms of big Hollywood productions. The story in “First Landing” is such that it need not be heavy on the expensive special effects, in which case it might be produced on a shoestring by a smaller studio…which comes at the risk of ending up with the same production value (not to mention sales figures) as “Stranded”.